plant local is shorthand for land stewardship practices. It was created by Adkins Arboretum, a 400-acre native garden and preserve on Maryland’s Eastern Shore, to further its conservation mission to restore and enhance the native landscapes of the Chesapeake Bay region.

plant local builds upon the community sustainability movement (eat local, shop local), and embraces a broad vision of native plant gardening for human habitat that enhances and restores natural systems for a healthier and more beautiful environment. plant local accommodates human activities and needs while providing for wildlife, diverse native plant communities, and natural habitats from dunes and marshes, rolling meadows and woodlands to ravines, barrens, and ridges. These practices are promoted for towns, and suburban and rural areas where fragments of what was there before remain.